Gazette / Jonathon GruenkeCalista Springer's grandmother, Suzanne Langdon, filed the lawsuits as the personal representative of Calista's estate. She is listed as Susan Langdon in the lawsuits.

CENTREVILLE — A Southfield law firm has sued Michigan Department of Human Services officials, Centreville Public Schools and a school counselor alleging they failed to protect Calista Springer from parental abuse that ultimately led to her death in a 2008 house fire.

Greg Wix, an associate in the firm of Michigan trial attorney Geoffrey N. Fieger, said Monday that “indifference shown by protective services” in investigating more than two dozen abuse and neglect referrals in the decade before Calista Springer’s death was “borderline criminal.”

Springer was found chained to her bed in an upstairs room in her family’s Centreville home following a February 2008 fire. She was 16.

Three separate lawsuits — one filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, one in the state Court of Claims in Lansing, and a third in St. Joseph County Circuit Court — were filed Friday on behalf of Susan Langdon, Calista Springer’s fraternal grandmother and personal representative for her estate. No court dates have been set yet in any of the suits, which each demand jury trials and seek awards “in excess of $75,000.”

The court filings provide information from Michigan State Police records about abuse and neglect complaints Langdon says were filed by Calista Springer’s family members, teachers, a mental-health worker, friends and adult acquaintances.

The suits claim St. Joseph County protective services caseworker Patricia Skelding and supervisor Cynthia Bare, both of whom are now retired, failed to adequately respond to "a long and documented history of the abuse" at the hands of Calista's parents, Anthony and Marsha Springer.

The Springers are now in state prisons, after a jury in February found each guilty of torture and child abuse but not guilty of murder.Langdon's federal suit also names as defendants former state DHS director Marianna Udow; her chief deputy, Laura Champagne; and former state manager of DHS Child Protective Services programs Ted Forrest.

Joy Yearout, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Attorney General's office, which represents state officials, said Monday that her office had not seen the lawsuits and could not comment.

View full sizePhoto Courtesy of Suzanne LangdonThis photo taken in June of 2005 and provided by Calista Springer's grandmother, Suzanne Langdon, shows Calista Springer, at a party for her grandmother's 65th birthday.

The circuit court suit names Centreville Public Schools and elementary counselor Diana Kamphues as defendants, alleging Kamphues “fail(ed) to report the abuse and neglect,” “actively campaigned against Calista in her capacity as the school counselor” and "told others (who reported abuse suspicions) that Calista was a liar and thief.”

Rob Kuhlman, Centreville schools superintendent, said he was unaware of the lawsuit when contacted Monday by the Kalamazoo Gazette and would reserve comment until after he had a chance to review the filing.

The Gazette was unable to reach Kamphues, who is still a counselor at the school, or Langdon for comment.

Wix said Langdon contacted the Fieger firm in hopes that a public airing of how protective services and school agencies handled her granddaughter's case might force change.

“These kinds of cases have been the subject of lawsuits by my law firm and also class-action lawsuits in federal court and yet DHS in the state of Michigan is still woefully behind,” Wix said. “As I monitor these cases, Michigan ranks at the bottom or near the bottom in protecting children and assuring they are in safe environments.”

Since Calista Springer's death, St. Joseph County DHS director Chris Kadulski has said, the state agency has increased caseworker training and case monitoring and reduced the number of complaints assigned to individual workers.

According to Wix, allegations brought by Langdon are based on a review of more than 2,000 pages of reports incorporated in an investigation conducted by Michigan State Police following the teen's 2008 death.

Allegation of abuse/neglect against Calista at the hands of her parents, which begin in April 1995 when it was reported that she had “extremely high lead in her blood,” include:

• June 1995: Calista’s parents were not following through on treatment for her lead poisoning.

• May 1997: Protective Services refused to investigate a report that Calista had been hit in the face by her father and had a bloody lip.

• June 1997: In response to a report that Calista had burns on her hand that had not been treated and were infected, a CPS report said her mother had hit her in the face, giving her a bloody nose and swollen eye, and her lips appeared to be burned, but a DHS supervisor closed the case.

• May 1999: After a Community Mental Health worker reported Calista was being "restrained to her bed, a chair or a pole in the kitchen by means of a belt or ropes," DHS concluded "services" should be offered to the family and the case evaluated "on an on-going basis.”

• May 2000: After a former school counselor told DHS that Calista said she had been kicked by her father, had a bruised cheek and was locked in her bedroom every night, DHS rejected the case “without any investigation.”

• September 2000: A former school counselor told DHS that Calista was being locked in her bedroom and wasn’t able to get to the bathroom "so she had to wet the bed.”

• August 2001: DHS rejected without investigation an anonymous report by a citizen that Calista's mother was "mentally abusing" her and that Marsha Springer had told the citizen she planned to put Calista in foster care when she was 12 “but hopes she dies before then.”

• October 2004: A Centreville teacher, a sheriff's deputy and a neighbor separately reported that Calista told them she was being chained to her bed, was not being fed, was assaulted by her mother and was not allowed to take a bath or use toothpaste or deodorant. DHS said there was "insufficient evidence to prove neglect or abuse” and police reports indicated the caseworker never looked at the chains and told police she didn't recall discussing them with the parents.

• November 2004: After the same Centreville teacher reported Calista had a black eye and said it occurred when her mother slammed her head on the floor, DHS again claimed “insufficient evidence.”

• June 2005: After an adult friend reported Calista was being chained, beaten with a board, not fed and made to wear the same clothes to school for days, DHS declined the case after calling Kamphues and being told Calista was "seeking attention."

• Fall 2005: Calista was removed from Centreville Schools by her parents who said she was being "home schooled."